Posts tagged College Football Recruiting

Photo credit: Jesse Johnson / US Presswire
When last place might not matter: Here’s why college football’s National Signing Day’s rankings matter and where they might be wrong

1. On Jan. 25, a high school senior named Nate Andrews from Fairhope, Ala., decided to attend Florida State University, where he would also play Division I football. Previously, he verbally committed to Minnesota, but as teenagers are wont to do, he changed his mind. Andrews hadn’t put ink to paper and even if he had, that might not have mattered. One teenage recruit this year tattooed the Auburn logo on his forearm, before ultimately deciding to rescind his commitment to attend Alabama.

It happens. According to the Andrews’s high school football coach, Andrews decided to pick Tallahassee because it was a bit closer to home and he also struck up a good relationship with FSU’s defensive coordinator, who had previously coached defensive backs at Alabama. Good enough reasons – not to mention that Florida State has a more prestigious football program than Minnesota. The change was met with frustration from the Twitter feeds and message boards relevant to Minnesota college football, but many expected Andrews to switch schools, particularly after he attracted some late interest from Alabama.

Two themes emerged from Florida State and Minnesota fans though. Gopher fans bemoaned the idea that their coach couldn’t bring in talented recruits; Florida State fans cried that their coach was bringing in too many untalented recruits. Mr. Andrews was, at the exact same time, seen as either the one who got away or the one who shouldn’t have been invited.

College football recruiting can be kind of stupid at times.

2. Meanwhile, as Mr. Andrews made his collegiate decision, another teenager named Reggie Spearman debated what school would be best for his future. In August, the linebacker prospect picked Illinois, but as he continued to visit other schools, he wasn’t so sure anymore about attending school in Champaign, Ill. Schools started swarming. Iowa offered him a scholarship, as did Minnesota, Purdue, Syracuse, Indiana and seven other schools.

When asked about his recruitment, Spearman once said, “I’m still committed to Illinois but Iowa really opened up things and I am really just undecided.” He visited a few of the schools, each place jockeying position on Rivals’s recruiting pages.

When it came time to make a decision, Spearman took out a Syracuse hat, but then dropped it and picked up an Iowa Hawkeyes cap and put it on his head. Again, that’s pretty standard in recruiting. That isn’t the disgusting part. That came from Spearman’s Twitter feed, when he retweeted the messages he received from adult men trying to convince him to attend their favorite university.

A sampling of the messages he received after choosing Iowa (everything sic):
- “lmao this dude pathetic. you are a goddamn joke son.”
- “LOL..U picked 3 losers…good luck with that.”
- “HAHAHA.. Are you delusional? Good luck. You can’t even beat Iowa State.”

There are pages more of similar stuff, although most of it is congratulatory by now.

Keep in mind, Mr. Andrews and Mr. Spearman are three-star recruits; that is, they are not considered to be among the top tier, five-star players who command the most attention. That’s when the crazy gets turned up to 11. Five-star defensive end recruit Chris Jones of Houston received death threats from fans of Ole Miss and Mississippi State when he was rumored to be picking between the schools.

Again, grown men are harassing 17 and 18-year-olds over the Internet about what college the teens should attend – to the point where they are threatening bodily harm. If reading that doesn’t give make your eyebrows and nose scrunch together – and it should – try this. Take the phrase “17-year-old boy” out of the above sentence and place “17-year-old girl” in its place.

Several writers – Spencer Hall and Adam Kramer, for example — have written about the inherent creepiness of college football recruiting, but it’s worth repeating. SB Nation’s Black Heart Gold Pants even labels all recruiting posts “Caring Is Creepy.”

Again, 17- and 18-year-olds are being hounded by grown men who they have never met in person or even talked to on the phone. They are being repeatedly told that they should attend STATE U and when these teens decide a school that isn’t Johnny Crazyperson’s favorite, the crazies let their freak flag fly.

I bristle when people compare professional sports to slavery, but I’ve much more troubled when I overhear people brashly yelling about college football recruiting like this: “Yeah, we got that boy coming to town! Locked him up!” This insanity is not evidence of how competitive college football is. It’s evidence of how many crazy people like college football.

College football recruiting is nearly always creepy.

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Some of the Gophers’ bigger names from this recruiting class will likely redshirt, but others will find themselves in position battles on the first day of practice. This is a look at wide receiver and which players could contribute immediately.

The video starts with a red circle around a wide receiver, No. 12. He runs a go-route, a straight streak for a long touchdown. The next play starts, this time with No. 12 standing near his own 40-yard line as the red circle pops up again. The circle disappears, the play starts and the high schooler moves from near the close sideline to the middle of the field, setting up an apparent screen.

No. 12 catches the ball in the middle of the field in a group of bodies. He runs to his right, makes one tackler miss. He jukes again, two more tackles grasp at air. He moves to his left, he keeps running forward, past two more overmatched defenders and runs the final 50-some yards for a touchdown.

On the highlight video, future Minnesota Gopher Andre McDonald amazes the casual fan. Golden Gopher offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover gushes about the Hopkins recruit as the tape continues, with McDonald looking like he’s playing against defenders several years younger, deeking, stiff arming and simply outrunning his opposition during the entire video.

“Andre McDonald… Ahh.. Umm.. What do you say about ol’ Andre?” Limegrover says at the beginning of the video.

McDonald is part of Jerry Kill’s first true recruiting class at Minnesota, a large part of it. McDonald was rated the No. 1 prospect in Minnesota by Rivals.com and reportedly had offers to go to Ohio State, UCLA, Iowa and Illinois. He committed to the Gophers and then Vanderbilt before eventually deciding again on Minnesota. He’s one of 27 scholarship athletes who have signed on to play football for the “U,” a class led by other in-state recruits that were just as heralded: Philip Nelson, a quarterback; and offensive linemen Issac Hayes and Jonah Pirsig.

I don’t try to put too much time into following college football recruiting. To do so, you’re going to watch a lot of grainy videos on YouTube. You’re going to hear way too much doublespeak from college coaches who are in many cases openly manipulating the futures of these same high schoolers. You’re also going to follow way too many Facebook and Twitter pages of teenagers; no doubt wondering why they haven’t yet learned the difference between the contraction you’re and the possessive your, among other things. You’re going to hear about bag men, about street agents and about fishy player measurements. Inflated 40-yard-dash times and weight room abilities are an accepted part of the deal. Everyone looks amazing on the highlight tape.

Simply put, it’s a crapshoot.

Even if a recruit commits to your school, there’s always hurdles with grades to overcome or coaches changing their minds or players deciding that the recruiting hostesses at University XYZ proved more convincing than the tour of their “committed” school. Nothing is really binding. And again, you’re watching online videos of 17-year-olds (albeit playing football). As “Every Day Should be Saturday’s” Spencer Hall writes: “Recruiting is weird and often sort of creepy.”

Here’s an entire list of all of the Golden Gopher recruits, including walk-ons, along with videos, news articles, and brief bio information provided by the University: Gophers Signing Day Central. I’d love to tell you which Gopher recruits will blossom in the next few years, but I’d be lying. I can however project which players have a chance to contribute next year for the Maroon and Gold.

Today, we’ll hit the wide receiver position.

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